And if things are going to get better for the Broncos, if they are indeed going to take a big step toward inserting themselves into the division race Monday night in San Diego, they need to be a little more selfish about the whole thing.

Once they have the football they need to keep it. As the Broncos players returned to work Tuesday, the team is currently 30th in the league in lost fumbles with seven, which puts them ahead of only Philadelphia (eight lost fumbles) and Kansas City (10).

“We’ve had an issue with fumbles,” said Broncos coach John Fox. “… It’s another area we’ll stress seriously this week, ball security. Everybody practices it, but the reality is you have to see the results on gameday.”

And in the ocean of statistics, both situational and overall, that swirl around the NFL, few are as powerful determining a team’s potential fate than turnover margin. Those seven fumbles are fueling the Broncos’ minus-6 standing at the moment.

That’s not the company the Broncos want to keep given of the 14 teams minus-2 or worse in turnover margin in the season’s first five weeks just two — Cincinnati and Philadelphia — have winning records.

In Sunday’s loss to the Patriots the Broncos lost three fumbles, two inside the Patriots’ 20-yard line to go with Peyton Manning’s fumble on a sack that gave New England the ball at the Broncos’ 14-yard line. That was plenty of lost opportunities in what became a 10-point Denver loss in Gillette Stadium.

Overall, wide receiver Demaryius Thomas has lost three fumbles — a total that includes a failed lateral on the last play of the loss to the Texans — McGahee has lost two, Manning has lost one and running back Knowshon Moreno has lost one.

Fumbles are always bad news, but the Broncos have had some at the worst times and in the worst spots. Two of Thomas’ lost fumbles came on long pass plays that would have put the Broncos in prime scoring position and one of McGahee’s fumbles came at the Patriots’ 14-yard line with the Broncos driving to try to close the 10-point deficit with 3:48 to play.

“(Patriots linebacker Rob Ninkovich) just made a good play,” McGahee said. “I thought I had high and tight, but I know you have to do better than that … it changed the game.”

Most long-time offensive coaches will contend if a player maintains the traditional “three points of contact” on the ball the chance of fumbling are slim, even if the defensive player makes flush contact trying to knock it out. Occasionally defensive players win a battle in traffic, but it’s the fumbles where players are swinging the ball away from their bodies that can be prevented.

Any room that remains between the ball carrier’s body and the ball is room for the defensive player to get a hand in to yank it free. The Broncos players should be prepared for defenders to take more chances in an attempt to get the ball free given Denver has already put it on the ground seven times this season.

There is no question the Broncos have to slow the pace — they’re headed toward what would be a single-season record for the franchise (23) at the current rate. Since the start of the 1995 season, the Broncos have lost at least 15 fumbles in a season three times and two of those have come in the last two years.

They lost 16 fumbles in ’95, lost 15 fumbles in 2010 and lost 17 fumbles last season.

“Sometimes you do have to give the other guys some credit,” Fox said. “They work, they practice, too. But we can do a better job preventing some of them, no question, and we have to. As a coach those are the plays that damage you the most. Usually you’re taking points off the board and somebody else is putting them up when they happen.”

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